[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound, a verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Father, thank you for just
the incredible moments we've already shared,
pouring out praise to you. Those are the words. We pour out our praise to you
only because you're worthy. And some of us so far this
week have had a difficult time. We've had challenging
experiences. And so, to come in
the middle of a week, to be dowst in
praise and worship, to be revitalized and
refreshed by the word of God, the scriptures, the promises,
to get our bearings once again is such a beautiful gift for us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, we
live in a country where we have the freedom
to worship our God. And Father, we pray that as
we continue now to worship by not saying things or singing,
but by at this point listening to what you want to say
through your word to us. We worship in that way Father. We pray, Lord, that you would
use this time to direct us, to direct our steps,
to answer questions, to solidify, Lord, things
we've been wrestling with. We're your children, you are
our Father, Jesus is our Savior. The Holy Spirit lives inside
each one of us who believes. And on top of that, we get
the fellowship of one another. Thank you for these gifts. In Jesus', name Amen. Amen. A couple of centuries
ago, a French diplomat by the name of Alexis de
Tocqueville came to our country and he noticed that it
was a culture rooted in biblical truth at that time. It was a nation that had
its roots in the Bible, and it was tethered affixed
to the Christian religion, as he called it, in his
writings and his observation. It was a remarkable thing,
this experiment in democracy as the Europeans called America. An experiment in democracy. But that diplomat
noticed that we were tied to the Christian religion. Now the question is,
how did that happen? How did a civilization
so many miles away from the original
happenings in Jerusalem, how did that happen that on
the other side of the world you have a nation, a
civilization, where churches abound, where the
Bible is taught, where we are free to worship our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, how did that happen? It happened because the
one who began the movement, Jesus himself, told
his disciples-- and they decided to actually
do it, go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. And so, they did that. In the Book of Acts, in
chapter one verse eight-- if you remember, that's
our anchor verse, that's the outline of the book. It was Jesus who
said to them, "You will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, Judea, Al Sumaria, and to the uttermost
parts of the Earth. A few years after that, a man
by the name of Saul of Tarsus, a Jewish rabbi, was radically
converted on his way to put out that movement. Imagine if Saul would
have been successful and he doused the
movement that was starting to move out of Jerusalem,
Judaism, Al Sumaria, and go north into Damascus. We may never be here
doing what we're doing. But he wasn't
successful, because it was God's plan that the
gospel go into all the world. Interestingly and ironically,
one of the chief carriers of that message was
that Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle. And we see him on the move. He has made one
missionary journey, he came back to Jerusalem, then
Antioch where they sent him. Did another round, went back
to Jerusalem and Antioch where they sent him. Now he's on trip number three. Before he gets on
trip number three, at the end of journey number
two, he has been in Corinth. And he moves from
Corinth 350 miles to the west to the
city of Ephesus. Corinth, as we
already told you, was one of the chief cities of
the ancient world on the trade routes. And it was the chief city
of that southwestern part of Greece, that
landmass known as-- if you remember, the
Peloponnesian peninsula. I'd just like to say it. Or the Peloponnesus. It was almost an island,
but because there was that narrow
isthmus that connected one part with the other,
it was a peninsula. Paul had been in Corinth, he
had spent 18 months there. He gets aboard a ship
and he goes 350 miles-- I'm sorry I said west,
to the east to Ephesus. One of the most frequented trips
in the ancient world by boat was the trip from
Corinth to Ephesus. You could always make sure-- it would be easy to find
a caravan route or a boat going there because they
did it all the time. It was on the trade
routes by sea. So he goes from one
area to another area from Archae, southwest
Greece, over to Asia Minor. To the area known
as Ionian, which was southwest Anatolia
later, which later on today is modern day Turkey. He goes to Ephesus. It is the center and
chief commercial city of that region with a population
of about 250,000 people. It was known as the
market place of Asia, the marketplace of Asia Minor. Paul goes there,
goes to a synagogue because that's what
he does, right? He first goes into a synagogue. Every city he goes into,
finds a Jewish synagogue. If there's not one, he'll
go down to the river where a few Jews are
congregating like he did when he came to Philapi. But he goes into a synagogue. What's weird about
this time in Ephesus, they like what they hear. And they invite him to stay. Now usually, he goes and they
don't like what they hear, they don't invite him to
stay, they kick him out. This time he's in Ephesus,
he goes into the synagogue and they go, "Wow,
come back again. Tell us more." And then he says,
"Well, I can't. I've got to leave." And so, he wants
to go to Jerusalem and then back to Antioch,
but he says, "I'll be back. Lord willing, I'm
coming back to Ephesus," because he's never had this kind
of reception in a synagogue. So now on his third
missionary journey he goes back to Ephesus. In the meantime,
he's been in Ephesus, he leaves, he goes
toward Jerusalem, and then back to
Antioch after the end of his second
missionary journey. In the meantime,
this strange cat, this strange guy by the name
of Apollos shows up in Ephesus. Aquila and Priscilla,
thankfully, are there. Been well taught
and trained by Paul. And they are disciplers. So they're listening
because Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt. A brilliant man,
quite an orator. And in the synagogue, this
Jewish man with a pagan name, very articulate, very
brilliant stands up, and he preaches
the gospel sort of. Up till the baptism
of John, he believed that the Jews believed
in the messiah and that John was the
forerunner and predicted that Jesus would come,
but that's all he knew. He didn't know that
Jesus had come. He didn't know that
Jesus had died, that he had risen from the
dead, that he was coming again. All of that he didn't know. He only knew the story of
Jesus up to John the Baptist. But here's what I like about
him, he shared what he knew. He didn't know much,
but what he knew, he shared, and he
shared it well. Aquila and Priscilla heard
him, and they taught him the way of the Lord
more accurately. They filled in the gaps, they
told them about Jesus' death on the cross, his
Resurrection, his coming again. So he leaves Ephesus
and goes to Corinth. If you don't mind,
I'm going to skip back just a little bit
into chapter 18 to set the story as we
get into chapter 19. In verse 23, which
it begins now, his third missionary journey,
after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over
the region of glacier phrygia in order strengthening
all the disciples. So he's beginning his
third journey already. Now a certain Jew named
Apollos, born in Alexandria, an eloquent man-- and the
word indicates not only was he able to speak, but
he had a brilliant mind. He was able to brilliantly
articulate, is the idea. An eloquent man and
mighty in the scripture, or learned in the scripture. That is the Old Testament. Scriptures came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed
in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit. Boy, when you get
somebody who has a bright mind, a
brilliant intellect, but also fervent in spirit and
just pours themselves into it, you have a dynamic guy. And that's this guy. Being fervent in
spirit, he spoke and he taught accurately
the things of the Lord. Though-- here's the caveat, he
knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak
boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and
Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and
explained to him the way of God more accurately. So interesting mix,
interesting character. Jewish, pagan name,
Greek name, Apollonius, shortened to Apollos
from Alexandria, Egypt shows up in Ephesus. Messianic, sort of, part way. Believes in Jesus, kind of. But he's articulate, he's
brilliant, he's passionate. Aquila and Priscilla said,
"Man, this guy's a gold mine. He can preach. If he only knew the
truth, he'd be awesome. Let's tell him the real
truth, the whole truth, the rest of the truth." So they did. Now nothing can stop this guy. Now let me just fill
in something else I started on last time. I mentioned a little bit
about Alexandria, Egypt and it was the source of
a lot of different things. And I mentioned that there
was one time a library in Alexandria, Egypt that was
considered the best and largest in the world at the time. It had hundreds of thousands
of volumes burned to the ground after Caesar Augustus
invaded the area. Alexandria, Egypt had
intellectual wealth, not just because
it had a library, but it had great thinkers
and great projects that came from Alexandria, Egypt. It had a Jewish community, I
told you about that last week. I won't repeat myself, but one
of the great Greek thinkers named Euclid-- you've probably
heard of his name. Euclid, the mathematician,
called the "Father of Geometry" came from Alexandria. It was known for
its learned people. There was also a
version of the Bible, a translation from the
Hebrew into Greek known as the Septuagint version. Septuagint meaning
70, because 70 people translated the Old Testament
Hebrew text into Greek. So it was known for learning, it
was known for being articulate, it was known for a
classical style of Greek, and the Septuagint version
was finished in that city around 132 BC. I bring all that up because
when you go through the New Testament books, you come
to the book of Hebrews, and the question is, who
wrote the book of Hebrews? And the answer
is, we don't know. It doesn't say Paul, it
doesn't give a name at all. But it's interesting that
the Greek language used in the book of Hebrews is a
classical style Greek, very different from Paul's writings. Very, very different
from John's writings. John was a little more
colloquial kind of country easy to understand Greek. In fact, if you ever take
Greek, my Greek professor first took us through first John
then the Gospel of John because it's easier
to understand. Hebrews is a whole different
style, a classical style. And it prolifically
quotes the Old Testament. So somebody who was mighty in
the scriptures wrote Hebrews, and the version that is used
throughout the book of Hebrews is the Septuagint version. Which leads me to believe--
this is only my personal opinion based on what I just
said, that it was Apollos that wrote the book. I believe he's the
author of the book. I can't prove it, I may be
wrong, we'll get to heaven and you can all laugh at me. Boy, were you wrong. But you may disagree, but
I'd be interested to find out who you think wrote it. It's easy to say Paul wrote
it, but there's no indication that he wrote it. He might have just decided
to write a different style of Greek and a completely
different writing style than he was used to. That is possible and
some believe that. I happen to believe-- I lean to, at least it's
as good as explanation as any, that Apollos
wrote the book. Well, he leaves Ephesus
and goes to Corinth. Well, let's read it. We'll finish it out. I don't want to do all the
talking, let the Bible talk. When he desired, verse
27 of chapter 18, when he desired to cross
Achae or to Achae-- that's the region
where Corinth is-- the brethren wrote exhorting
the disciples to receive him. And when he arrived,
he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. Now he has the whole picture,
now he goes to Corinth and teaches them. Remember, he's mighty
in the scripture, he's going to be able to piece
all those messianic scriptures together. For-- and I love this-- he
vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing
from the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. Why did he leave Ephesus and why
did he go to Corinth in Achae? According to Paul,
to water the seed that Paul planted there first
Corinthians chapter one, he writes to the Corinthians. And he said, "I planted,
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." So he goes there, he is he's
amazing, he's brilliant, he can vigorously refute
publicly the Jews. I love it when somebody
is so apt in debate and has a biblical perspective
is willing to debate somebody publicly. I have a friend who is
a scientists from MIT, lives in Arizona, has
come to Albuquerque. I've invited him
a couple of times. He refutes evolution
scientifically. And he loves to come, but he
says, "My conditions are this. I want to find somebody in your
community, some scientists, some brilliant person who
will debate me publicly. I want a public debate,
strongest skeptic, strongest evolutionists, but he has to be
willing to debate me publicly." And he goes, "Just to
give him the favor, I will give him my evidence and
my manuscript before the debate so he knows what
I'm going to say." So I invited him here,
he spoke to the church. But I couldn't find somebody
to publicly debate him. Well it's interesting that
Apollos gets to Corinth, publicly, vigorously
refutes those who would come against
the messianic standpoint, and he does it vigorously. Well obviously, he made an
impact on the Corinthians. So much so, that
Paul writes to them and he goes, "How is it that
some of you say I'm of Paul, I am of Apollos, I'm of
Cephus, I'm of Christ. Remember that scripture? That's because Apollos was
brilliant and made an impact. Paul planted, Apollos watered,
God gave the increase, but he made such an
impact that people were willing to divide
the body of Christ following a person
rather than Christ. I could explain more,
but I don't want to get too much into detail. However, I'll just
say this, this could have become a problem
between Paul and Apollos, and yet it never did. By the time we get to the
very end of first Corinthians, the same letter
that Paul is penning that writes about Apollos,
he mentions him again. And he said that after Apollos
left and joined with Paul, though you invited him to
come back, decided not to go. He's not going back to Corinth. He says, "But I
urged him to go." Now, that's fascinating to me. So probably the
conversation went like this. "Paul, I'm not going, man. They're trying to pit you
and I against each other. They're dividing up
into little camps. I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephus,
I don't want to add to that." And Paul said, "No Apollos,
you have a great gift. You should use it. Don't let the sin of the people
keep you back from exercising the gift that God has for you." So I see just a beautiful
synergy, spiritually speaking, and a beautiful way of
serving one another, not competing but
complimenting one another between Paul and Apollos. Now we get to chapter 19 where
we were trying to get along. And it happened while
Apollos was at Corinth. That Paul, having passed
through the upper regions came to Ephesus. Now, he came back and he said
he wanted to go back there. And finding some
disciples, he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him,
"We have not so much as heard whether there
is a Holy Spirit." You ought to know a
little bit about Ephesus. Ephesus, as I mentioned, is
the chief commercial port of that area, 250,000 people. But it was most commonly
known for a certain temple. Now, there was a lot
of temples in there, but Ephesus was
called The Guardian of the Temple of Artemis
or The Temple of Diana. Artemis is the Greek name,
Diana is the Roman name. And because the
temple was there-- and I'll tell you a little
bit about this temple later on in this text, massive. Four times bigger than
the Parthenon in Athens. If you've ever seen
that, four times larger. It was one of the imperial
cults in existence in the Roman Empire. And it was right
outside of Ephesus. Diana was the
goddess of the hunt. She was also the protector of
young girls, she was called. She was sort of a patron
goddess of motherhood-- I'll explain a little more
about that in the verses ahead. But when young
girls got married, they took a lock of their
hair and their maiden garment and offered it in
the temple of Diana hoping that she would protect
them and take care of them and help them birth children. Paul goes there. It's a superstitious
city, there's lots of different
kind of worship that goes on there, but
a very noteworthy city. It becomes his base of
operations for the next three years, two and 1/2
to three years. Remember I said that
Corinth he stayed longer than any other city, except
for one and that was Ephesus? So he stays here a long time. Jesus said you will go from
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost
parts of the earth. That's the book of Acts. Paul makes Ephesus
his new Jerusalem. This now becomes the center,
the base of operations for his third journey. And I'll tell you
why that's important. He's going to use this to
reach that whole region. And he does that through
Bible study in the same place. He just raises up people who
will go, like little embers out of the fire. And it lights it up in different
areas around this region. You'll see it. So he comes, comes to
Ephesus, set up operations, he's going to be there a while. And he said to these
disciples, these believers-- remember this is his first
time he's been there, he now finds believers. Aquila and Priscilla
have been there. But also who else? Apollos, right? So watch this. So he said to them, "Did
you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We haven't
heard so much whether there is the Holy Spirit." And he said to them, "Into
what then were you baptized?" So they said, "Into
John's baptism." That's the baptism
of repentance. Then Paul said, "John
indeed baptized you with the baptism of repentance
saying to the people that they should believe on
him who would come after him that is on Christ, Jesus." When they heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had
laid hands on him, the Holy Spirit came upon them,
and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were
about 12 in all. What's happening here? Who are these men? What's going on? Let me give you a
couple of explanations and I'll let you figure it
out or decide on your own. One possibility,
these were believers in a sense, that is they were
converts, early converts, of Apollos of Alexandria. Apollos of Alexandria knew
only part of the gospel. He only knew the gospel
up to John the Baptist. So he was baptizing people,
and that was John's baptism, that's all he knew until Aquila
and Priscilla filled him in, right? So it could be that they
were getting baptized, but this John's baptism looking
forward to Jesus who had come. Aquila and Priscilla
go, "Dude, he came." Christian baptism doesn't
look forward to Jesus coming, it looks back to the fact
that he came, died, buried, and rose. That's what Christian
baptism identifies with, his death, his burial,
his Resurrection. So they were baptized
only in John's baptism. They get re-baptized--
by the way, the only case we
find in the scripture where somebody gets re-baptized. And that's because
they were converts of Apollos, early converts. A second explanation--
and this would be the explanation more of
the Pentecostal churches is that Paul gets to
Ephesus and notices that something is lacking
in these early Christians walk in Ephesus. There is power lacking. And so he asked them, "Did
you receive the Holy Spirit because there is something
amiss in your life?" "We don't even
know what that is." And so, he prayed
for them, they were baptized in the name
of Jesus, and he prayed for them and they were
filled with the Holy Spirit. They now had a new
dynamic a new power. So I'm going to let you
sort those things out. There is an ongoing
in-house debate among brothers and
sisters as to which is the preferred interpretation,
have fun with it. Verse eight. And he went into the synagogue-- remember, they like
him in the synagogue. Right? Back in chapter 18. Look at verse 19 of chapter 18. He came to Ephesus-- this is missionary
journey number two, and left them there. But he himself
entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to
stay longer time with them, he did not consent. Remember, he said, "I'm
leaving," went to Jerusalem. Now he's back, now he
goes back to the synagogue where they invited him. They were receptive. And he spoke boldly
for three months. He's never had that kind of an
audience in a Jewish synagogue ever. Reasoning and persuading
concerning the things of the Kingdom of God. These Jewish people in the
synagogue are getting saved. He's persuasive,
but there's always one of those lurking around. But when some were hardened
did not believe, but spoke evil of "the way--"
remember, that's it's called in the Book of Acts. Christianity five times
is called "the way." Jesus said, "I am
the way, the truth, the light following
Jesus is the way." It's the only way. When they spoke evil of the
way before the multitude, he departed from
them and withdrew the disciples reasoning daily
in the School of Tyrannus. And this continued
for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. He's in the synagogue
until he wans't. He's in the synagogue until
their soft hearts became so hardened because
the leaders evidently saw such fruit converting to
Jesus that they said, "Dude, you're done. You're out of here." So he left, left the synagogue,
left the organized religion, and started
teaching, discipling, and preaching in a place
called the School of Tyrannus. A secular place. A non-religious environment. That's where the church
really took root, that's where it really started. It's sort of like
when we came to town. We started in the
lakes apartments and then we went to the
far north cinema theater. That was our School of Tyrannas. Now in ancient
times, in this region especially, in the
Ionian cities especially, because of the
weather conditions, people would work from early
morning till 11 o'clock in the morning and then quit. Have a break from from 11:00
to about 4:00 in the afternoon, a five hour break. Then they would resume
work into evening. And that's because it
was the heat of the day. They still do that
in a lot of areas. So that's sort of like
the midday siesta. So this is the Ephesian siesta. So in keeping with that,
Paul saw an opportunity. "Hey, Tyrannas,
whoever that is-- we'll get to that in a minute. "Tyrannas doesn't
work after 11:00 and won't work again till 4:00." So he works something
out with Tyrannas so he could use his
classroom for five hours to teach the word of God. And it was a great
opportunity for two years. Cool, huh? Now we don't know
who Tyrannas was, we don't have any other
extra-biblical literature, but he was obviously an
educator, school of Tyrannas. He was probably a
philosopher or a rhetorician, teaching guys to
reason and speak. But his name is interesting. Tyrannas means death
spot, or tyrant. You're thinking I thought it
meant dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus Rex. No, that sort of
plays off the word. Tyrannas means death
spot or tyrant. Now, one wonders in hearing
that where he got that name. Did his parents really
name him tyrant? Or perhaps that's a nickname
that his students gave him. "That guy's a tyrant." He could have earned that name. Either way, Paul is
using his classroom for a couple of years, that
secular environment turning it into something spiritual. And it says, verse 10, "And
this continued for two years--" watch this, "so that
all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of
the Lord Jesus. Both Jews and Greeks." How? Did all of Asia? Now Asia meaning Asia
Minor, that area. That Ionian area. That's Asia. That region called Asia
or Asia Minor, all of it heard the word of God. Well, he just systematically
taught the word of God week after week,
month after month, year after year for two years. Longest ministry in his
missionary endeavors. And it says, "All of Asia
heard the word of the Lord." Now Paul from Ephesus
writes first Corinthians. And in the end of that
book, chapter 15, chapter 16 of that book, he says this. He says, "I'm going to tarry
in Ephesus for a while. I'm staying here, I
see good fruit for--" Listen to what he said-- "For a great and effective
door has been opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." That's a direct quote,
1 Corinthians 16. What did he mean? A great and effective
door open to me? He probably meant I get to use
this guy's classroom every day. I'm going to do it as
long as I can do it. He had it for two years. Now out of that
sprung other churches. The Church of Colossi was
founded during that time. Paul never even went to Colossi
when he wrote the letter to the Colossians. But a church started there. How? People from that region came to
Ephesus, heard Paul, went back. The church in
Laodicea-- in fact, the seven letters to
the seven churches you know about in
Revelation 2 and 3, that's a circle of churches
around the area of Ephesus. They probably all were
influenced by Paul preaching in this
School of Tyrannas, sending these people out to
those areas instead of himself going to those areas. An interesting
style of evangelism. We have a little
bit of a problem. I just want to make
it known to you. In verse 10, it says "They
continued for two years," which would lead you to
conclude Paul spent how many years in Ephesus? Two years. The problem is later
on in Acts chapter 20, he says that I was in
Ephesus for three years. So was Luke wrong
or was Paul wrong? Or maybe they're both right. You say how do you figure? Well, go down a few
verses down to verse 22. "So he sent into
Macedonia two of those who ministered with him or
to him, Timothy and Erastus. But he himself stayed
in Asia for a time." So he's in the School of
Tyrannas for two years, plus the three
months he has been in the synagogue, plus the extra
time that he stayed in Ephesus somewhere doing something. It adds up to three years. Makes sense? Now verse 11, "Now God
worked unusual miracles by the hand of Paul so that even
handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the
sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits
went out of them." I love the way Luke pens this. He does not say, "And Paul
worked unusual miracles." Because he didn't. First of all, he knew Paul. He knew Paul couldn't
work any miracles. He's just a guy. And so, notice the wording,
"God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul." That's how God works. God is looking around
for hands to use. Romans 12:1, "I
beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
you present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." How about, "Wake up
every morning God, take my hands and use them. Let my hands be your hands. Work your work through my hands,
my feet, my mouth, my life. Here's my body. Whatever you have for me
today, Lord, I'm yours." God is looking around for
hands to use, mouths to use. The scripture says,
"The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the
entire earth that he might show himself strong on
behalf of those whose hearts are loyal
or dedicated or perfect toward him." God's just looking
for people to use. Will he use you? Will he find you? He'll work his
works through you. It's interesting in
verse 12, he says, "unusual miracles in verse 11." I want to show you
how unusual a miracle. Don't picture Paul just standing
over somebody kind of quivering his hand going, "Yay, I
say into thee, be healed." He didn't do that. Now that's weird, but
this is weirder, weirder than even that. It's says, "So even
handkerchiefs--" the word means sweat bands. It's what guys
like Paul who were tent makers in the
heat of the day would wear on their head that
would soak up their sweat. And it says aprons, that's what
workers put over their bodies to rub their hands on. It got miree and gnarly
and greasy, dirty. So Paul would throw
his sweatband or apron and the Lord would use
that to heal somebody. Now because of this scripture,
over the years people have said, "Now that is
unusual and that is weird, maybe I can get
weirder than that." And they have,
but they've gotten so weird they've become
unscriptural, un-biblical. They have taken this
idea to an extreme, and they will have
their healing ministry. And they say, "Brother,
I'm sending you this apron or this
handkerchief." I've seen it. I've gotten
handkerchiefs in the mail with a hand print drawn on it-- really by a machine, but they
say, "I placed my hand here. And I drew my hand
so that you can place my hand on your
head this handkerchief and you'll be healed." Weird, right? It gets even weirder because
the letter does skip. "As I was thinking of you this
week, my heart went out to you and I started praying for you." Now this guy doesn't know me. I've never heard of him. I got things like
this 30 years ago and I've kept them just to prove
how weird some Christians can get. I have a file called
scams, and that's in it. And so you take this thing,
and you pray this prayer, and you place this
magical handkerchief on, and you supposedly
will get healed. But part of the deal
is if you really want to claim you're
healing, you'll show it by a seed faith
offering to this ministry. In other words, "Give us money
for this stupid handkerchief because we've got to defray
the cost of this crazy thing, and God will heal you." Oh I'll restrain myself. I've never heard anybody saying,
"Hey, here's a smelly sweatband that I had in my garage. Let me just give this to
you, place this on you." I'd like to see him try that. That would be more closer
to the biblical text. They won't do that. Then, verse 13, then, "Some
of the itinerant Jewish exorcists--" see, it
gets really weird-- "took it upon themselves to call
on the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits
saying, "We exorcise you." Now look at the spelling,
it's not we exercise you, he's not saying do 20
push and 15 jumping jack. "Come on, exercise. Get into it, good exercise." It's exorcists to cast out. We exorcise you by the
Jesus, whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of
Scavaz, a Jewish chief priest who did so. And the evil spirit
answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul
I know, but who are you?" "Then the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and
prevailed against them so that they fled out of the
house naked and wounded." In Ephesus I failed
to mention, it was the center of temple worship
of Diana and several temples. If you go there
today, you can see some of the ruins of
this temple of Diana and other temples, many
of them in that city. It was also a center of
occultism because of the pagan worship. Demon possession,
demonology, and there was at that time and
unfortunately still is today a fascination,
even an obsession with demons and demonology. I know some Christian
ministries that just have an obsession
over a deliverance. I remember when we first
started this church, I got a phone call
one day from somebody and it was just kind
of a long pause. I said, "Hello,"
and then no answer. "Hello?" And then finally, the
person on the other and said, "Do you deliver?" And I immediately
thought he thinks we're a pizza parlor, right? I said, "Well no, I think the
pizza place is a couple doors down. I can give you the--" "No,
do you deliver from demons?" I said, "Well, the Lord can
deliver anyone from demons." So yes, there is the power
of the Lord to deliver, but I don't have a
deliverance ministry. That's Jesus'
ministry, not mine. But some become very
obsessed with it. There was that in this area. Now, it says that this
was a chief priest. What does that mean? Well, Sceva may have been
indeed a chief priest. That doesn't mean he was
a high priest because we have all the names in antiquity
of the Jewish high priest, this isn't one of them. So he was not a
Jewish high priest with residents in Jerusalem
or an office in Jerusalem. He wasn't even from the
family of the high priesthood, because we know again
who their names are. He could have been a
priest who got weird and distracted by
casting demons out, or he wasn't a priest
at all, but he claimed that he was a chief priest. I bring that up because if you
remember a few chapters back in Samaria were Philip
went, there was a guy named Simon the
magician, Simon Magas. And it says, "Who claimed
that he was something great." He wasn't great, but
he thought he was great and he claimed he was great. This guy could have claimed
to be chief priests, but maybe he wasn't. Or maybe he was,
those are the options. But there were seven sons
of this Jewish chief priest named Sceva who did so. So there they are
casting demons out. Now, it wasn't that
unusual actually. 2000 years ago to read
of Jewish exorcists. Do you remember in the gospels-- and here's a case out
of Luke chapter 10, where the Jewish
leadership accused Jesus. They knew he cast demons out,
he had authority over nature, over evil spirits. And they said, "Well,
he casts demons out by the power of Beezlebub,"
the devil himself. And Jesus said, "Listen, a house
divided against itself cannot stand. If I cast out Satan or demons
by the power of Beelzebub, by whom do your
sons cast them out?" A reference to the
fact that there was an interest and inordinate,
I might add, interest in this. And this of that same vein. But notice, they don't have
a relationship with Jesus, they're preaching that
Jesus whom Paul preaches. No relationship
personally to him. Now you and I could
take authority over the spiritual realm in the
name of Jesus, it's different. We know him. And he gave us that
permission to do so, but they didn't know him. They saw this simply as
a verbal incantation. "Hey, that Paul uses
the name of Jesus, and he does these
weird miracles. He puts sweatbands on people,
so let's use that name." The response is telling. The demons say, "Well
Jesus, I know, literally Jesus I recognize. And Paul I am acquainted with--"
that's the literal rendering, "but who are you?" You see, if you're going
to talk to the devil and you don't have a
relationship with Jesus, you are fair game. You're dead meat. Man, that's a
vulnerable place to be. To confront evil
itself, the epitome, the quintessential being of
all evil in the name of Jesus, and you don't have a
relationship with him? So torn up and naked they fled. They streaked out of the
house, down the street of Ephesus they go. "Who are those naked dudes?" "Oh, those are guys that
just had it all wrong." What fascinates me is we
know Jesus and we know Paul. Is your name known in hell? Are demons afraid of
your walk with the Lord? Or would they say to you, "So." It's just a fascinating thing
that you could be used of God and you could be doing
such damage to the enemy, and I love to say that
let's make the devil mad. Let's make him mad. Come on, let's just do something
that'll just tick him off. Saving souls is one,
preaching the gospel, discipling makes him mad. Love it. Love to know that I'm pleasing
God and making the devil mad. Is your name known in hell? Paul's was. Jesus' certainly was. "This became known,"
verse 7, "to all the Jews and Greeks
dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all." Phabas is the
Greek word, phobia. They were scared. "And the name of the
Lord Jesus was magnified. Hallelujah. And many who had believed
came confessing and telling their deeds." Now look at the result of this. It backfired on the devil. The devil tried to get victory,
it backfired, made him mad. Also, "Many of those
who had practiced magic brought their books
together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up
the value of them, and it totaled 50,000
pieces of silver." Man, 50,000 pieces of silver. I don't know exactly what
currency they're measuring. If this was the ancient
Greek Drachma, then it would be the equivalent of
138 years of a working man's wage. That's an expensive bonfire. Gets you fired up, doesn't it? "So the word of the Lord," verse
20, "So the word of the Lord." I love how that's put. "So the word of the Lord
grew mightily and prevailed." That simply means the
message about Jesus, the message about
who he is and how he can change a life, that
message, that word grew mightily and prevailed. "When these things
were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit when
he had passed through Macedonia and Achae," so
he's going backward through Macedonia and Achae,
"to go to Jerusalem--" again, he'd been there before. To go there again. Saying, "After I have been
there, I must also see Rome." First mention of Paul's desire
to see Rome in the Bible. And why is that
important to the story? Because the theme of
the Book of Acts is how the gospel gets from
Jerusalem to Rome. The gospel goes from
Jerusalem to Rome. And because Rome is the
center of the world, the center of influence, it's
going to go everywhere else. So this Paul guy
had a huge vision, and I love people
with big vision. He could have said,
"Well, you know, Ephesus is about as
far as I want to go. I like Tyrannas." He's got big vision. He goes, "No, I'm on the move. I'm going back to Jerusalem. But I'm going to Rome. I want to go to the
center of the world. I want to go to New York
City of the ancient world. I'm going to Rome." Well Jesus said, "Go
into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature." So Paul thought, "OK, I will." And he did that until
the day he died. Now, if you don't
mind, put a marker here and turn to Romans chapter one. Are you there? Romans one. It's easy, it's
right after Acts. Just go one block
over, you're there. Romans 1, verse 13. "Now, I do not want you
to be unaware brother," now this is Paul writing to
Rome, the Roman Christians. He had never yet been there,
but there's Christians there. "I do not want you to be
unaware brother and that I often plan to come to you,
but was hindered until now. That I might have some
fruit among you also just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the
Greeks and to the barbarians, but to the wise
and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also." Did he ever make it to Rome? Of course he made it to Rome. Did he go as he
thought he would go? No, he didn't he goes
to Jerusalem eventually, gets arrested, gets
taken to Cezary, gets put on a couple
of different trial, spends two years there. Gets put on a prison ship,
goes to Rome as a prisoner, not as the preacher,
but as a prisoner. Ends up in jail. We've discussed that
on Sunday mornings on weekends, Philippians. Ends up in jail,
goes as a prisoner. By the will of God, Paul
wanted to go to Rome. That's an expensive trip to
get on a boat and go to Rome. So God, I think
he's into economy. He thought, "You know, I'm
going to send you to Rome, and I'm going to make
your stay in Rome so influential and
magnanimous, but I'm going to have the Roman
government pay for it." That's how it happened
because Paul appealed his case to Caesar, which means
the government is now responsible to get him to
Rome in front of Caesar. That's how he got to Rome. OK so, that's Romans one. Now turn over to
Romans chapter 15. Stay with me. 15th chapter of
the book of Romans. Verse 22. "For this reason, I also
have been much hindered from coming to you." He mentioned that
at the beginning, says it now at the end. "But now no longer having
a place in these parts and having a great desire these
many years to come to you--" so his state emphasis
is winding down. "Whenever our journey
to Spain--" see, talk about big vision. He wants to go to
Rome and then keep going west to the outermost
regions of the Roman Empire, which is Spain. It was the edge of the
world as they knew it. That's where he wanted to go. "I shall come to you,
whenever I journey to Spain," verse 24, "I shall
come to you, for I hope to see you on my journey
and to be helped on my way there by you. If first, I may enjoy
your company for a while, but now I am going to Jerusalem
to minister to the Saints, for it pleased those
from Macedonia and Achae to make a certain
contribution for the poor among the Saints who
are in Jerusalem. It please them indeed, and
they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles
have been partakers of their spiritual
things, their duty is also to minister to
them in material things." Look, you got the
gospel from them, they gave you spiritual wealth,
give back to the material wealth, support them. "Therefore, when
I have performed this, this gift
of money that I'm going to give them,
and have sealed to them this fruit,
speaking of that money, I shall go by way
of you to Spain. But I know that
when I come to you, I shall come in the
fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now he's writing to whom? Christians. A church. Well, how did the
church start in Spain if Paul never started it? Really? We're going to
ask that question? We're going to so limit God to
think Paul was the only guy who could start a church? Let me tell you how I think
the church started in Rome. You remember what happened
on the day of Pentecost in the early part
of the Book of Acts? People from all over the world
were there for the feast. 3,000 people were
saved and baptized from all over the world. They went back home. That's how the church started. From the people who came and got
saved on the day of Pentecost and were baptized by
Peter went back home. Some of them to
Rome, probably aided by Aquila and Priscilla who
weren't in Rome until they get kicked out. And now Paul writes to
them, having a desire to come to them, and he will. Now why does he want to
go to Jerusalem again? To give a gift. So look a chapter 16. I'm doing this because I want to
tie those holes in your reading when you read
consecutively through and you don't really
have a reference what it's referring to. So he continues to
write to the Romans. Verse 1 he says, "I commend
you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant in the church
at Centria," which is over by Corinth, "that
you may receive her in the Lord in a manner
worthy of the Saints and assist her in whatever
business she has need of you. For indeed, she has
been a helper of many and to myself also. Great Priscilla and Aquila,
my fellow workers in Christ, Jesus who risked their
own necks for my life. To whom, not only I
give thanks, but also the Church of the Gentiles." Hold on just a
moment, I blew it. Not that Chapter 16. Chapter 16 of 1
Corinthians, do you mind? So he's writing to the Romans. Now he's writing
to the Corinthians from Ephesus, chapter 16. 1 Corinthians 16. I'm doing this because I
want to close on a note. I want you to see it. Chapter 16, 1 Corinthians. Are you there? OK, that's why we call
this a Bible study, you got to do some work too. "Now concerning the
collection for the Saints as I have given orders to
the churches of Galatia, so you must do also." Now, he's ordering them to
give their financial substance to help in the other church. He obviously didn't
mind taking offerings, he obviously didn't mind
even putting a little bit of pressure on them. "On the first day," verse
two, "of the week," that's when they would meet, Sunday. "Let each one of you lay
aside something storing up as he may prosper that there
be no collections when I come." In other words, I want you
to get this offering together so I can pick it up. "And when I come, whomever
you approve by your letters, I will send to bear
your gift to Jerusalem. But if it is fitting
that I go also, they will go with me,"
which is what happened. "Now I will come to you when
I pass through Macedonia for I am passing through Macedonia." OK? So he plans to go to Jerusalem
after having collected money from the churches that
he's founded, started, these wealthy patrons. The church in Jerusalem
now is suffering. They lost their jobs because
the temple related jobs-- they've all been fired because
they're against Christ. Now go back to Acts, chapter 19. He says, "I'm going to go to
Rome, I must see Rome also." Verse 22, "So he sent
into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him
Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in
Asia for a time." He sent these two
guys over to do what he said he was going to do. They're going to
collect the money. I'm going to come, they're
going to do the ground work, the prep work to take
the offering so I can take this gift to help that
spiritual work in Jerusalem. You have been recipients of
their spiritual blessings, now give them the material. It's not unlike what we're
doing on the west side. We're raising money for changed
lives on another part of town to spread the gospel. And so, we're not doing it
for us so we can have it or enrich ourselves,
it's so that we can establish a campus on the
west side for the glory of God. Now here's what's
fascinating to me. We had a brother that we have
worked with and supported for many years, and he
is a man from Macedonia. His name is Slove, he
was here this week. And before he left yesterday, he
came up to me with $500 in cash and he says, "I want
to buy a light bulb. I want this to go to the opening
of that west side church. I have been a recipient
of spiritual blessings for so long, I want
to give to this." And I just thought
immediately of what Paul said about the
Macedonian churches, how they gave out of
their poverty to give to the work of the Lord. And I thought here is
the man from Macedonia, it's like a repeat
of the biblical text. Well hopefully this puts it
all together in your mind how this worked. Paul was in one place,
writing to another place, planning to go to
Rome, but he's going to go back to collect
the money, then he's going to go to Jerusalem. And as he gets closer
and closer to Jerusalem, everybody is going to say,
"Don't go to Jerusalem. Don't go there." And he goes, "Well, I'm going." "Don't go there." Because the Holy Spirit tells
Paul everywhere he goes, "They're going to beat you up,
they're going to chain you, you're going to get arrested
if you go to Jerusalem." He goes, "I'm going." And he goes to Jerusalem. They beat him up, they arrest
him, they take him to Cezaria, he eventually goes
to Rome, not like he wanted, but as a prisoner. And that happened to
be the perfect will of God for the apostle Paul. So it's nice to get the
back story, isn't it? It's nice to go
behind the scenes and say, "Well,
this happened then and then that happened later,
and this is why it happened." And piece it all together. I really thought we were going
to get through the chapter tonight, but you know my pace. So Ephesus is an
interesting place. It gets more interesting,
and we'll see it next time as we pick it up in
verse 23 and finish the chapter because
a riot takes place and Paul just loves those. He seems to attract them. Father, thank you for this
man who just was un-relenting, undaunted by opposition. In fact, it seems
the more opposition he got, he thought,
"Yep, the devil's mad. We just made him
mad again, that must mean I better keep preaching." Even though he himself
did get discouraged, he required visions
of encouragement from you that he
got like in Corinth. Still, what an example of
a firebrand for Christ. Of a true apostle. One who took the great
commission seriously, could've stayed in
a number of places that were quite
comfortable, but decided you call them somewhere else. And instead of hanging out
at the beach in Cezaria or surfing the
waters of Corinth, he went from place to place
as an obedient servant. Finally to Rome, which
was his heart's desire, in a very different way
than he anticipated. And yet, he saw that as
the gospel being furthered. He wrote to the Philippians. Lord, I am just
astonished by him. I thank you for the
opportunity you've given me to study his life,
to go to some of the places he was at. But it's not the name of Paul
we want to lift up or consider, it's the one he spoke of and
that is the name of Jesus. He's the one we praise, he's the
one who saved us from our sins, he's the one who has a plan for
the world, to save the world. He's the one who is coming
again and will rule and reign forever. So we give Jesus glory. It's in his name we pray, Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
